Indo-Pacific: scattered records from the Red Sea and Natal, South Africa to China, New Zealand, and the Caroline, Hawaiian, Phoenix and Line islands. Eastern Pacific: southern Baja California, Mexico to northern Chile.
Highly migratory species, Annex I of the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Biology:
Found abundantly near the edge of continental and insular shelves, but also in the open sea and occasionally inshore.
Often found in deepwater reefs and near insular slopes.
Littoral and epipelagic, in the open sea or near the bottom at 18-500 m.
It is quick-moving and aggressive.
Solitary; often associated with schools of tuna (Ref. 244).
Feeds mainly on fishes, but also squid, paper nautiluses, and pelagic crabs.
Viviparous.
Regarded as dangerous to humans.
Flesh utilized fresh and dried-salted for human consumption; its hide for leather; its fin for shark-fin soup; its liver for oil.
2 to 14 young, 73 to 87 cm, are born per litter.